help with algea fight please

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

mom2reds

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
May 11, 2006
Messages
1,802
Location
Lubbock Texas
With in the last 2 months I have been getting a lot of green spot algea on tmy glass and a darker bushy type algea on the leaves of my plants for some reason and it is driving me nuts..
My tank is 100gal. low light tank I only use root tabs for ferts. My light are only 1.2 wpg and they are on for 12 hours a day. Stock
1 bnp
12 ruby barbs
1 clown loach
10 neon tetras
6 red sarpea tetras
2 otos
2 von rio tetras

Any suggestions...
 
Short answer:

Green spot algae (GSA) is usually due to a problem with phosphate levels, specifically phosphate levels that are too low (especially as compared to your nitrate levels). The solution is to get more phosphate into your tank, either by dosing with something like monopotassium phosphate, doing more frequent water changes (if your tap water has a decent amount of phosphates in it), or alternatively, keeping your nitrate levels lower by doing more frequent water changes.

Your other problem sounds like Black Brush Algae (BBA). The cause of that is a little harder to pin down but is usually a result of too many nutrients in the water, either from an overloaded tank or from a less-than-ideal water change regime. I know that, of my three tanks, 2 of them I am really good about regular tank maintenance and they are free of the stuff, my 3rd tank I am much lazier about doing pwc's and I have BBA growing in that one. Stocking levels and lighting are pretty similar in all 3, it's really the lack of doing frequent-enough pwc's that is the main difference in the 3rd one. Looking at your list of fish, you certainly don't strike me as being overstocked so I am wondering about your water changes.

As for biological solutions that will help (not solve!) these problems, nerite snails are the only thing I know that will eat GSA. And amano shrimp will eat at least a little BBA. Also, in any tank with algae issues, one thing that can help is having some fast-growing plants that can suck up nutrients before the algae can use them. I realize that nothing grows super fast in 1.2 wpg but some plants would be a lot faster than others--java moss, anacharis, maybe some hornwork, wisteria, etc.

This link might be helpful to you as well.
 
If you get a fast-growing plant like water sprite, it'll outcompete the GSA for the same nutrients. I think that daylight spectrum bulbs help too.

BBA is a major pain. I do weekly 30-50% water changes on all my tanks but I still have BBA issues in my 20L. The BBA grows directly under the light bulbs. I'm going to try pressurized CO2 when I have some cash. DIY CO2 helped, but it wasn't consistent enough to eliminate the BBA.
 
Thanks guy, I do weekly 50% pwc and I have lots of plants like java moss, java ferns, lots of different anubia's, and some diff. swords. I don't know the names of. I am working on getting some ferts and new lights but that seems to be taking me awhile. My nitrate level is almost 0, I gues due to the low stock level, I thought that might be part of the problem I am slowly adding stock.
Thanks for ya'lls help.
 
Back
Top Bottom